I have mysterious areas of water appearing in my carpet in my home.
They are about 6 inches in area. If you were to draw a line thru the
house where the spots occur, it would be almost a straight line. The
plumber has been to the house;
he looked under the house and says there are no water pipes in the
area where the spots occur, and thus cannot blame it on leaking pipes.
He also said the flooring underneath the house was not wet. There is
no water standing under the house either.
He has no idea what could be causing this. Do you have an answer as
to what could cause it, and what sort of service business could be
called to eliminate it, since it is apparently not a plumbing problem?

At the risk of asking the obvious... do you have a dog?
And if we can rule out pet leakage, are these spots just "moisture" or
more like puddles? Are you sure it's water? How do they "appear"? How
many spots are there? Are they along the wall or in the center of the
floor?
I do love a good mystery and this sounds like one, but I suspect our
answer is going to be something fairly mundane. Teenager covering up a
spill?
Keep us posted ..
-K~

Clarification of Question by
alleycat-ga
on
06 Oct 2002 11:34 PDT

I'm not certain what type of flooring/subflooring that I have. Do you
mean the material that it is made of?
I have not ruled out that it's coming from above, but looking at the
ceiling, I don't notice any signs that water is coming through. (No
water stains on the ceiling, for example).
I do have a dog but she has never had an accident since I've owned
her. (She was housebroken when I got her). Also, she was outside for
four hours last night, and when I came in, I noticed a fresh area of
water that occured while she had not been in the house. Whe's the
only pet in the house besides a bird.
The areas are at least three feet out from the wall. If I find the
areas when they are fresh, they are well-soaked areas that can be
absorbed with a towel. If I find them later, they are semi-dried.
I'm not certain it's water; I'm just calling it that since it is some
sort of liquid.
I don't have teenagers, or anyone else living in the house.
Thank you,
Alleycat

Just a couple of questions:
1. Is your house heated by hot water radiators?
2. How often do these stains appear? Once a week? A few times a week?
3. Do you have pipes in walls adjacent to the spots?
4. How old is your house? Is the foundation level?
I think you can eliminate the dog. A dog wouldn't urinate in a fashion
which would appear as a straight line. But I wouldn't rule out leaking
pipes. Water is somewhat like lightning; it follows the path of least
resistance. Therefore, the leak likely isn't the result of pipes below
the floor. Which is why I asked about adjacent walls. And depending on
the colour of the walls, water damage to drywall or plaster can be
hard to detect. The next time it occurs, keeping in mind water runs
downhill, go to the walls and gently press the base of the walls (just
above the trim) with you thumb. Work you way along the whole length of
the wall, testing its strenght about every six to twelve inches. If
you find a soft spot, it MAY indicate a leak behind that wall.

Clarification of Question by
alleycat-ga
on
07 Oct 2002 15:45 PDT

Hello,
1. The house is not heated by hot water radiators.
2. The stains appear once or twice a week. So far, I have had 4
stains over the last couple of weeks. I haven't had any in a couple of
days.
3. There is at least one pipe adjacent to the wall in one of the
rooms.
4. The house is about 12 years old. The foundation seems level;
however, this house was not built by the best people around, so it
would not surprise me if the foundation was not quite level.
I'll try that trick about testing the wall for a soft spot. Thanks.

I noticed that you didn't say if the spots were there all at the same
time; you didn't say if it is out in the middle of the room or at the
baseboard, near a window, how many spots or how far in length,
etc...or if you have a pet, and you didn't say if you looked up at the
ceiling if anything was dropping down, or if it happened near an open
window...
I used to have a pet do that while she was having kidney failure...but
aside from that, maybe there is a leak at the ceiling level. I also
had a leaky water heater that made water spots. An open window could
cause a strip of water.

Damaged flooring in our home was resulting from leaking at the drain
pipe for the washing machine. Water penetrated the wall and was
coming out in an adjacent hallway -- though the laundry room initially
showed no water.
Keep at it alleycat and you'll find the source!
Good luck,
Omnivorous-GA

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